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Analysis: 'Somebody's going to have to blink' in budget debates

Russell Berman, staff writer, The Hill

2012 agency budgets remain in limbo, with just about a week left in the fiscal year and amid renewed Congressional wrangling over a stopgap measure.

But it's far from a done deal just yet.

Russell Berman, a staff writer with The Hill newspaper, He joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Amy Morris to discuss the latest from the halls of Congress.

Only a few billion dollars separate the competing proposals, which although sizable, is much less than the vast amounts lawmakers wrangled over earlier this year in debates about a government shutdown in April and during the debt-ceiling debate.

Still, "somebody's going to have to blink," he said.

With 10 days left before the end of the fiscal year, Berman said it likely wouldn't come "down to the wire," although he acknowledged more "bluster over the last 24 hours or so."